The only woman in the German national amputee football team

It can be different for men: for one thing, there are more amputations than among women due to wars and other types of accidents. In addition, football is the first choice for many men when it comes to getting their lives back on track. This was also the case for Nicola Roos, which is why the teenager is now the only woman playing in the male world of amputee football. And not just in a minor role, but one of the leading roles.

Last year, in 2024, she won the German championship for the first time with her club Mainz 05. She also played for the German men's national team at the European Championships as the only woman from Europe. With a strong seventh place, Germany's national amputee team qualified for next year's World Cup in Costa Rica. Nicola Roos naturally dreams of being part of the big event. As the only woman in an otherwise male-dominated world.

‘Nicola is a role model, an inspiration,’ her Mainz coach Jürgen Menger once said. But what is it like for her as a feminine force in a masculine world? ’I've never felt any scepticism from the men. They think it's really cool and admire me,’ says Nicola Roos with a grin. It helped the highly talented footballer a little that she used to play football with boys when she was a child. At the age of 14, she was diagnosed with bone cancer and had to have most of her right leg amputated.

While still in hospital, the former member of the Baden girls' youth team was told that she could continue to pursue her passion in amputee football. “That helped me a lot. I've been playing football since I was four,” she says. ’So there was never a moment when I felt dispair or wanted to give up.’ Of course, this also has to do with her sunny, cheerful nature. Nicola Roos always sees the positive things in life. For example, when it comes to training.

The young woman, who turns 19 on 6 May, has to travel a total of five hours by car to every training session at Mainz 05. Two and a half hours there from Karlsruhe, two and a half hours back. All that twice a month. ‘It's something you're happy to do,’ she says with a smile. She also trains once or twice a week in her home region with the women's football team at ATSV Mutschelbach since graduating from high school (with a grade point average of 1.9). There, too, she was warmly welcomed by the women without disabilities and has earned a lot of respect through her skills.

Nicola Roos trains hard, after all, she has to prove herself in a male-dominated world and has big goals for 2025. The Bundesliga season for amputee football kicks off on 24 and 25 May in Mainz with the first two match days, ending on 25 October in Düsseldorf with the grand championship final. (link:  https://www.amputierten-fussball.de/veranstaltungen/  ) ‘Of course, we want to defend the title,’ says Nicola Roos, ‘and then there's the Champions League.’ From 30 May to 1 June, Mainz 05 will participate in the tournament for the best clubs in Europe for the first time as German champions. (Link:   https://amputeefootball.eu/projects/champions-league/  ) In the preliminary round in the Turkish capital Ankara, they will face hosts Alves Kablo, AFC Tbilisi/Georgia and Real Betis from Spain.

The first participation of a German team in the European premier class of amputee football was made possible by the financial support of Bundesliga club Mainz 05. Recognition for the extraordinary achievements in amputee football is growing year by year. This is demonstrated by the atmospheric tribute to the German champions during a Bundesliga home game of Mainz 05 (link: https://www.mainz05.de/news/die-amputierten-fußballer-sagen-danke ) and the support provided by the Kreter Foundation for the German national amputee team. With her very special story, Nicola Roos is one of the biggest promotional figures.

‘I can already sense growing public recognition for amputee football,’ she says. The teenager has already signed a few autographs, but the geography and mathematics student in Karlsruhe is not (yet) recognised on the street. Perhaps that could change if amputee football makes it into the Paralympics. The World Games for people with disabilities are by far the biggest stage – the dream of the Amputee Football Association is to be part of the Paralympics in Brisbane, Australia, from 2032.

‘If we become Paralympic, many more people would see it and realise how attractive our sport is,’ believes Nicola Roos. Then her dream of a German women's national amputee football team could also come true...